Mühlbauer posts increase in orders in Q1 2012 – higher costs of sales and overhead costs as well as massive investments have a significant negative effect on operative result and free cashflow

Roding, 15. May 2012− The Mühlbauer Group has started the business year 2012 with an increase in orders. Main reasons for this were both an order for the delivery of technological solutions and software for personalization of ID cards, and the increased demand for semiconductor backend products at the beginning of the year, which resulted in a 20.3% increase to EUR 58.0 million (previous year EUR 48.2 million). At the same time, the Group achieved another important milestone of its investment offensive, which started two years ago and aims at pushing on modernization as well as expansion of existing and foundation of new locations, by completing and moving into the new production facility in Roding and equipping it with machines and installations in the quarter under review.

Development of sales in the business units. Consolidated sales before deduction of reductions in earnings of EUR 0.1 million respectively slightly rose by 1.7% year-on-year to EUR 50.4 million (previous year EUR 49.5 million). While the business unit Cards & TECURITY® posted EUR 32.5 million, which was 8.8% up on last year's EUR 29.9 million, sales in the business unit Semiconductor Related Products went down due to the lower demand for semiconductor backend products in the second half of 2011 which declined by 8.1% to EUR 11.0 million (PY: EUR 11.9 million). Also the business unit Precision Parts & Systems posted a negative sales development.

Result development Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) amounted to EUR 2.8 million, which was 71.4% lower than the EUR 9.8 million of the same quarter of the prior year which had been promoted by a result-effective special effect of EUR 1.2 million. This corresponds to an EBIT margin of 5.6% - after 19.9% in the same quarter of the prior year. Main causes of this significantly reduced result are, on the one hand, higher personnel costs and, due to investments, higher depreciation which resulted in a 9.2% increase in cost of sales. On the other hand, significantly higher costs of sales and general administration costs in some areas as well as slightly higher research and development expenses had a negative impact on the result. In consideration of a higher tax rate which is due to deduction of losses, the company earned net EUR 1.1 million in the reporting period, which is EUR 6.3 million less than in the same period of the prior year (EUR 7.4 million). The profit per share is EUR 0.07 in the reporting period – after EUR 0.51 in the same period of the prior year.

Cashflow. The lower annual surplus, the significant increase in working capital and the essentially higher cash outflow due to investments resulted in a decrease of the free cashflow by EUR 26.1 million to EUR -12.3 million EUR (previous year EUR +13.8 million). Thus, the net liquidity of the Group at the end of the quarter under review reduced to EUR 2.8 million. The shareholders' equity rate dropped from 68.1% at the end of the previous year to 66.9% at the end of the period under review.

Outlook. The fundamental trends in demand in the Cards & TECURITY® market still exist as the strong interest of governments and government-related institutions in offering more security as well as more mobility to people will have a positive long-term influence on the demand for the latest technology and software solutions for producing security-oriented identification systems in card and passport format. The same applies to RFID based applications. Promoted by multiple advantages in the application of RFID tags compared to normal barcode labels as well as by continuous cost reductions in production, more and more companies use the contactless technology especially in supply chain management.

Mühlbauer is the only system partner worldwide offering the entire technology and market competence from one source on both markets. Thanks to the market position and technological basis which have been achieved in the last 30 years and enforced in the last two years by massive investments, the Mühlbauer Group benefits more than others from this market potential and, in light of this background and the order backlog of EUR 209.3 million at the close of the reporting period, maintains its positive business expectations. The solution provider sees risks that may have a negative influence on these expectations primarily in the traditionally imponderable and project-laden nature of the government business as well as in the deterioration of sector and/or economic prospects.

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As an independent partner, Mühlbauer is already involved in more than 300 ID projects and supports numerous governments and public authorities worldwide, accepting full responsibility for the introduction of innovative ID documents. As a developer and manufacturer of the complete range of hardware and software systems in-house, customers benefit particularly from the technological and market expertise of the solution provider for the recording of personal and biometric data, the production and personalization of individual ID documents such as ID cards and ePassports, through to fully automatic access controls, which is gained over a period of thirty years.